Brass Rubbings Capture Old English Lifestyle

February 27, 1987|By ANITA GOLD, Chicago Tribune

You don`t have to believe in reincarnation to communicate with those who lived before us. Take the case of Mark and Barbi Horowitz, a young couple who while living in London decided to get acquainted with some folks who roamed the Earth between 1277 and 1631 A.D.

The Horowitzes accomplished such a feat through brass rubbings. The images they copied were engraved on sheets of brass found on English grave monuments. Such brass plates were either mounted flush against the wall, flush into the stone floor or placed over an altar tomb and secured.

To create a rubbing, a sturdy piece of paper is placed over the brass, and a waxlike stick or ``heelball`` is rubbed back and forth on the paper to reproduce the image on the brass plate. The method works in the same manner as placing paper over a coin and rubbing it with a pencil to create an impression.

Horowitz explained that the reason he and his wife did the rubbings was to create a collection to introduce 20th century people to the knights in shining armor, their ladies fair and the other dignitaries of the time.

According to the Horowitzes, the earlier brass monuments were better quality and thicker. The later examples were thinner and smaller and had less artistic quality. The earlier and finer examples portrayed knights, churchmen, abbots and bishops.

During the year the Horowitzes lived in England, they rubbed more than 75 brasses. Many of the brasses can no longer be rubbed because of wear, which makes the Horowitzes` brass rubbings collectors` items.

With a grant, Horowitz was able to frame 30 of the rubbings, which he carefully selected to show the changes in dress, religion, language and social customs from roughly 1250 to 1650 A.D.

All the rubbings are pictured and described in the book The Monumental Brasses of England -- The Horowitz Collection by Mark R. Horowitz, available for $3 postpaid from Horowitz, P.O. Box 1472, Homewood, Ill. 60430.